NOISE MENACE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXIX, Issue 5226, 13 January 1928, Page 4

NOISE MENACE.

“ THE THIEF OF HEALTH.’'

ECONOMIC LOSS ENORMOUS

“ ‘Take the din out of dinner and put the rest into restaurants ’ is quoted as being said by one sufferer fiom this present day jazz, and I wish an inventor could be found to db it,” said Professor Spooner to the Society of Women Musicians at London (says the Manchester Guardian). “ Many people seem to enjoy this terrible din in restaurants and elsewhere, so much so that one establishment pays its jazz band ,£16,000 a year. “Some people think if they get so accustomed to noise that they no longer notice it, it is harmless to them. That is a fallacy, for, although noise may not be heard, the nerve-force suffers, and noise, whether heard or not, is the most inveterate thief of health. “ One of the most serious aspects of the noise problem is that of sleep, particularly in its relation to mental workers and invalids. Countless people living near traffic noises are deprived 6f sufficient sleep and thereby injured in health. “ We should see that the rooms of our Cabinet Ministers and our executives are sound proof, as deep thinking is only possible where quietness prevails. “ We English are very slow to move, even when we see a thin ? ought to be done, but it is to be hoped that the success due to the tightening up of the law against ear-splitting hooters and noisy motor cycle exhausts isill lead to other beneficent enactments. “ I think that in the aggregate the economic loss due to impairment of working capacity owing to noise must be a good deal over /1,000,000 a week in this country alone, but the loss due to ill-nealth and premature death caunot be estimated.

“So tar, little has been done to combat this noise menace, and the only way, I think, is to agitate for a Public Health Noise-abatement Act and to try and get the: medical organisation of the League of Nations to take up the question in the cau?e of humanity.”